The Covalence Effect
by giuocob
Summary: It's the sequel to The Realm of Shadows! As Sora, Kairi, and Riku travel the galaxy, searching for a new incarnation of Xehanort, some strange things begin to happen when Sora and Kairi are around each other. DISCONTINUED.
1. Chapter 1

It was early morning. A silver crescent moon, already beginning to dip below the western edge of the horizon, cast the only light there was over the courtyard of Disney Castle. It was the time of day when owls and nightingales had gone to sleep, and morning birds had yet to wake up; everything was completely silent, and completely still. If there were tiny rodents scurrying about the garden, they were fully concealed by the tall, overgrown grass.

The only living creature awake at this early hour was a funny little white-feathered duck, standing at the edge of the topmost balcony, staring into the courtyard below. Half asleep, he slumped dreamily over the banister. He was hardly performing his function as night watch. Although he knew how important his job was – there had been Heartless attacks almost daily for the past week – he couldn't bring himself to stand in one place, alert, for hours at a time. 'Ducks need their rest much more than any other creature,' he told himself resolutely. However, whenever he tried to explain this to his friends, all he received were annoyed grunts, and occasionally a kick to the midriff.

He was immediately roused to his senses by the sound of footsteps padding along the corridor toward him. "Who goes there?" he quacked shrilly, spinning around and brandishing his staff at whatever was approaching. "Oh, Sora, it's you."

"G'morning, Donald," mumbled Sora as he shuffled toward his friend, stopping beside him and leaning on the banister. "I haven't really been able to sleep tonight. I'll take the rest of the watch if you like."

Normally, Donald would have gratefully accepted and dashed away to his bed, but Sora's demeanor troubled him. He had often complained of losing sleep in recent days. "You okay, Sora?" he asked concernedly. "Got something on your mind?"

"Oh, no, nothing much," said Sora. A better question would have been what he didn't have on his mind. Ajedel was gone, possessed by Xehanort. He had taken Naminé prisoner. On top of that, Riku and Mickey had been gone far longer than Sora had expected, and that worried Sora immensely. Had something happened to them?

"I'll bet your worrying about your friends," said Donald softly.

Sora chuckled at this; Donald had always been a bit on the slow side. "What, have you been reading my mind?" he joked. "Anyway, you can go get a little sleep, I'll finish the watch."

"Naw, I'll stay here," said Donald. "The night's almost over anyway."

Then, as if by his bidding, the sun peeked over the edge of the castle, illuminating the courtyard with its brilliant rays, revealing the miserable condition the place was in. The grass, once green and lush, had been browned and trampled by the Heartless which had appeared in the castle over and over again. Many of the beautiful hedges had been damaged or demolished by the continuous attacks. Even the red, velvety carpet beneath Sora's feet was scratched and frayed by a few bold Heartless who had ventured so far up before being killed by staff, shield, or keyblade. Finally, in a quiet corner, there was a gaping hole in the soil, about six feet across and four feet deep. Sora hadn't yet taken the time to fill this in, nor did he have any intention of doing so. As he gazed at this ugly gap, he was filled with a joy that caused him to momentarily forget all the rest of his problems. 'It's still hard to believe that we actually did it, that she's really back…'

"Well, that's that!" said Donald brightly, cutting into Sora's thoughts. "A whole night with no Heartless…that's been pretty rare lately! Come on, let's go get some breakfast!"

Sora wordlessly turned and followed Donald down several flights of stairs, listening to him yammer the reasons why Goofy should have more watch time. "Really, you've gotta bring the iron down on him hard! Last time you put him on watch, he didn't sound the alarm until the little devils had broken into my room and almost killed me! He thinks he can get away with that sort of thing. You've gotta punish him…I suggest that you make him take my next watch!"

He was still ranting as they pushed open a huge, oak door entered the dining room, where a breakfast of cold cereal and scrambled eggs had already been laid out for them by the handy walking brooms that attended to everything in the castle. Sora's smile of amusement turned to an alarmed expression as he saw Goofy sitting at the table, gulping down a tall glass of milk. "Come on, Donald," whispered Sora urgently, "let's stop talking about that, please?"

Donald, however, paid him no heed; he wasn't paying any attention to anything around him. "He's a big oaf who doesn't do anything around here! What if you make him take all of my watches, and let me get the sleep that I earn so tediously every day? Then maybe he'd…"

Goofy sprang to his feet so quickly that his chair skidded backward and smashed into the wall. He thundered across the room and stopped directly in front of Donald, towering over the hapless duck. "Now, you wouldn't be talking about me, would you?" he said fiercely.

Donald's eyes grew to an impressively large size. "N-n-no," he stammered, as he slowly backed away. "I would n-never say anything like that about you, G-Goofy!"

Goofy never stopped staring into Donald's terrified eyes. "Good," he grunted, "I'm glad to hear it." He finally stalked back to his seat and continued his breakfast, leaving a whimpering Donald to sink gratefully into a chair as far away as possible.

Sora breathed a heavy sigh of relief; he was glad this had been resolved so easily. The fights that frequently erupted between the two usually resulted in both nursing minor injuries and angrily avoiding each other for the rest of the day. But of course, it was all part of their bizarre friendship.

Just as Sora sat down on a nearby chair and helped himself to a bowl of eggs, the door creaked open. In stepped a person…the one person that caused Sora to be happy, even when so many things in the castle had been going wrong.

"Kairi!" he said, quickly rising to his feet. "Good morning!"

"Hey, Sora," she called cheerfully as she walked across the room and plopped into a chair beside him, her red hair ruffling a little from the impact. "Mm, scrambled eggs! I love scrambled eggs!"

"Yeah, me too," said Sora. He forgot his own breakfast for a moment, staring at Kairi as she doled a generous portion of eggs onto her plate and began to scoop them into her mouth. He hardly even realized he was doing it; he had found himself gazing blankly at her for no reason several times over the past week. For some reason, he found many of the ordinary things she did intriguing, as if she were some exotic creature in a zoo. Only when she turned and gave him a queer look did he mumble an unintelligible apology and return to his food.

Of course, Sora had told Kairi everything that had happened during the entire past year. At first, she had laughed and asked him to quit joking around, and who could blame her…she had no idea that she had been dead all that time. In her mind, she had simply gone to sleep in Destiny Islands and awakened to find herself here. However, constantly having the events recounted for her, and being shown the very grave in which she had been buried, eventually caused her to believe it. To Sora's surprise, she took it as a fascinating story, even a humorous one, and asked him to tell it again and again.

For Sora's part, this was the happiest week he had gone through in a very long time. After he had gotten over the initial shock, he fell into a continuous state of ecstasy. Kairi was back. The best friend he had ever had, the girl he had known his entire life, who he had lost multiple times before…forever, it had seemed this time…was back. But there was no way Kairi could know how he felt, she had been dead through the whole ordeal. Sora decided that he would try to act as though it had never happened, as Kairi did, but it was hard. He spent almost all his time around her, sometimes recounting the events that had brought them to Disney Castle, sometimes striking up general conversation, sometimes just mindlessly following her around like a stalker.

Kairi was sometimes unnerved by Sora's incessant attention, but she always took it graciously. Although she had not been around to witness Sora's torment over the past year, she thought she could imagine what it must have been like. She cared deeply about Sora and didn't want to hurt him if she could at all help. Also, she immensely enjoyed the conversations they had together. When Sora wasn't telling her the fascinating story of what had happened while Kairi lay dormant in her grave, they talked about all sorts of things, from relating their past adventures together to discussing things like philosophy. But there was one topic that Kairi kept trying to bring up, and Sora would not hear a word of it.

A brief flash of light in the corner of Sora's eye caused him to glance up from his food. Kairi had summoned her flowery keyblade, right there at the breakfast table, toying with it mindlessly.

Sora lay back in his chair and observed her warily. He didn't approve of this kind of behavior at all. He knew exactly what she was about to say, because they had discussed it many times in the past few days; Kairi wanted sparring lessons from him. Ever since she had risen, she had harbored an uncanny interesting fighting. Sora would not allow this under any circumstances. True, she had wielded her keyblade before, back in the Nobodies' stronghold, and if Sora remembered clearly, she had done away with quite a few Heartless by herself. By all rights, she was probably ready for combat. The problem was that Sora wasn't. He wasn't about to let Kairi fight, to let her put her life on the line, so soon after she had already been dead.

They sat in awkward silence for a few minutes, until Kairi finally spoke tentatively. "You know, Sora, keyblades aren't really all that common. I bet this one came to me for a reason."

"Yeah, I know," replied Sora patiently. She had tried this tactic on him before, and even though there was some sense in it, he would not hear of it. As far as he was concerned, the reason she had her keyblade was so that the Shadow could never touch her again.

"Well, means that I'm meant to fight, right?" Kairi continued nervously. "I would be just fine, all you would need to do is give me lessons…"

"Look, Kairi, I know you would be fine," said Sora gently. "But I'm not ready to give lessons just yet. Maybe in a couple weeks, okay?" He was only half lying. Maybe by that time, when the thrill of having Kairi back wore off a bit, he'd be ready to let her do a little fighting. Maybe.

Kairi persisted, however. "Aw, come on, Sora! I'm not being selfish or anything. I just want to help you save…her."

Her, or course, referred to Naminé. The safety of her Nobody seemed to be Kairi's chief concern. When Sora had first told her what had happened the night she was resurrected, she had clasped a hand over her mouth and remained in that position for several minutes, refusing to hear any more. Sora understood why she would be afraid, considered that Naminé was literally a part of her, but he still would not back down. "Naminé is going to be fine!" he said. "We're going to save her as soon as we can. Besides, I bet the last thing Naminé wants is for you to go risking your life for her."

Kairi opened her mouth to argue, but she was silenced by a strange rumbling sound in the distance. It slowly grew in volume until it reverberated through the whole room, echoing off the high ceiling. The vibrations from the noise caused the forks and knives to dance along the tabletop, some falling onto the floor with a clang.

Donald, who had been eating his breakfast in silence, sprang out of his chair and listened to the noise intently. "That's a sonic boom, it is!" he shouted over the din.

"A sonic boom!" Sora yelled back. "That means that…" But everyone in the room knew exactly what it meant: an airship was coming.

Sora leapt to his feet and rushed to the giant door marking the exit from the dining room, his heart pounding. Was Riku finally coming home? It seemed a bit surreal, considering that he had been away for so long. If he was actually back, it would vanquish a good chunk of his worries.

As Sora reached the door and heaved it open, his hopes were confirmed by a streak of red flashing across the sky, decelerating rapidly and heading for the entrance to the hangar. It was unmistakably the Gummi Ship. "It's Riku! Riku's back!" he called happily to his friends. As he spoke the words, he felt everything inside him loosen, as though a heavy stone lodged in his stomach had just been removed.


	2. Chapter 2

The rattling vibrations that violently shook the carpeted floor slowly subsided as the Gummi Ship disappeared below the horizon. In an exciting moment like this, the stairs were too much of a hassle for Sora; he simply vaulted over the railing and fell to the garden below, landing perfectly and slapping the ground to lessen the impact. His friends were just leaving the hall as he sped off to the hangar.

The Gummi ship's pilot, however, seemed to be in as much as hurry as he was. Even though Sora was sprinting at top speed, he had barely reached the opposite wall of the courtyard when the door leading to his destination creaked open. Out stepped a gray haired figure. "Sora!" he yelled, running toward his friend.

"Riku!" cried Sora in utter joy, also rushing forward. They met in the center and embraced, Riku patting Sora heavily on the back. They released their hold on each other and Sora stepped back, getting a good look at the man he regarded as his older brother. He seemed a bit older than he had been when he had left, less of a boy and more of a man. His features had sharpened and his eyes were keener. Also, he seemed rather weary, assumedly from the long time away from home, but it was nothing unlike the way he had been when they had first returned to Destiny Islands. On the whole, he hadn't changed much at all.

"So," remarked Riku cheerfully, "you look well enough. What have you been doing with yourself while I've been away? Anything interesting happen at the castle?"

"Oh, lots!" said Sora, a pathetic understatement. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Kairi, who hadn't been brave enough to take the fifteen foot plunge over the railing and had instead opted to go for the grand staircase, had arrived on the scene. Although her face shone with elation at seeing Riku again, she remained at a distance and observed the two of them. Sora gratefully realized that she was allowing them some time to themselves. 'Oh my,' he thought with a pang of realization, 'he's in for a real shock when he sees her.' "Riku, I really have to tell you something right now! It's about Kairi."

A shadow of disappointment instantly clouded Riku's face. "Sora, haven't you taken anything I've told you to heart?" he sighed. "You're never going to get your keyblade back if this sort of thing keeps up."

"No, no, it's not like that!" said Sora hastily. "Listen…"

"No, Sora, you listen!" shouted Riku, becoming very irritated, if not outright angry. "You need to stop thinking about her completely. I didn't think it would have to come to this, but you just don't seem to get it. From now on, we're going to pretend that Kairi never existed. I'm really sorry I'm saying this…I know it's going to hurt you. But it's the only way you're ever going to be able to fight again."

"Stop!" cried Sora. In distress, he glanced over at Kairi. She seemed absolutely appalled and furious, her teeth gritted together, cheeks burning red. For a moment, Sora thought she was going to summon her keyblade and attack Riku right there and then. She opened her mouth to say something, but if she made any sound, it was drowned out by two explosive cries of "Your Majesty!" from the other side of the courtyard.

Donald and Goofy had elected to take a smaller, concrete staircase to the ground floor that made the journey much quicker; even so, neither one was built for sprinting, and both arrived last. Suddenly, noticing that there were only three people in front of them, they stopped dead in their tracks. "Er…Riku?" asked Goofy timidly, growing pale. "Where is the king?"

This snapped Sora to the realization that Mickey was nowhere to be seen. A cold chill quickly ran throughout his entire body, the issue of Kairi instantly forgotten. Where was Mickey, indeed? Had he been killed battling Heartless? That would be an awful way to shatter what should have been a happy reunion among the three friends. Sora gulped as he waited for Riku's answer, fearing the worst.

Riku noticed Sora's plain distress, and he hurried to dispel it. "Oh, no, it's nothing like you're thinking! Mickey stayed behind on a planet called Sitadi." Donald and Goofy blew a collective sigh of relief. "He stayed to talk to an acquaintance of his, an esteemed scientist who knows a lot about Heartless and Nobodies," Riku continued. Then it was his turn to take on a slightly disconcerted look. "You see…something inexplicable happened while we were on Corón. It's a planet near Morphos," he added as Sora raised his eyebrows questioningly. "But one day, as we were getting ready to leave, we were attacked by Naminé!"

"Naminé?!" cried four people at once. Donald jumped backward, completely taken aback. Kairi, still off to the side, took an excited step forward. She was desperate for information about her lost Nobody, and she all but forgot the atrocities Riku had spoken against her in this prospect. Sora was perhaps more surprised than any of them; he had seen Naminé last, struggling in the arms of Ajedel as they disappeared into the portal. Had Riku said 'attacked'? What could have possessed that fragile creature to make her attack a friend?

"Yes, Naminé!" said Riku eagerly, looking around at all of them, as if he hoped one of them could offer an answer to this quandary. "And she had a keyblade, too! Mickey and managed to fight her off, but we weren't able to capture her before she got away. I have no idea what could have…wait a minute…" His wandering gaze settled on Kairi, who had been slowly advancing forward. She stopped in her tracks as his eyes widened dramatically. "Who are…you can't be…" He froze in place like a statue, not a bone in his body moving. "But…you were…how did you…" He glanced wildly at Sora, then back to Kairi, then toward the corner of the courtyard where she had been buried. All that remained of the grave now was a deep hole next to a towering pile of fresh dirt. "Kairi…" Now he began to tremble slightly. Not removing his eyes from the girl who he hadn't seen in a year, he demanded, "Sora…how…how did this happen?"

Sora couldn't answer immediately because he had been laughing uncontrollably, face buried in his cupped hands. Something about Riku's shock struck him as enormously funny and ironic. Later on, he'd feel ashamed of himself for standing there, right in front of Riku, chuckling at his distress. "Well, it's a long story," he gasped after collecting himself for a few moments. "But I'll tell you everything."

And he did. Sora clearly remembered Ajedel telling him never to share any of his research with another person, not even a close friend. But Ajedel was gone now, possessed by Xehanort, and it didn't seem right to hold secrets away from Riku, especially now at their reunion. So Sora told him all about the concept of Shadows, how Xehanort had escaped from his realm and stolen Kairi's soul. Then he related how he and Ajedel had gone back to Destiny Islands, how Naminé had appeared at the castle and unearthed Kairi's body, how his keyblade had come back, how Kairi had revived, how Ajedel and Naminé had disappeared in that black portal.

Riku's stare never left Kairi once during the entire story. "Wow," he muttered simply when Sora had finished. "That's…that's just incredible." For the first time, he seemed to gain the courage to move toward Kairi, cautiously all the same, as if she was some kind of ghost. Stopping in front of her, he began to wring his hands nervously. "Well…Kairi…I'm so happy that you're alive! And, jeez, I'm really sorry I said those things about you. I just meant it for Sora's good…I hope you understand…" Even though he towered over her small body, he shrank back before her. "But…I'm really, really happy right now! So, can you forgive me?" This was the first time Riku had asked for someone's forgiveness for a long time. He extended a tentative arm, intending to shake her hand.

Kairi ignored this gesture and instead rushed forward, embracing him heartily. "Don't worry!" she laughed. "Why would I hold something like that against you? We've been friends ever since I can remember. I'm really happy to see you too!" Riku awkwardly put his arms around Kairi's waist; he was somewhat unaccustomed to hugging and being hugged.

Sora stood back and smiled as his two friends embraced. This was it, then: for the first time in a year, the three of them were back together again. "So, Riku," he said after they released each other, "you were gone a lot longer than you said you would be. What were you doing?"

"Oh, right!" exclaimed Riku. He seemed all too eager to relate his tale. "Well, without going into a whole lot of detail, there's not too much to tell. We left because there was an alarmingly high level of Heartless activity on a planet called Morphos. Mickey said that this place has always been infested with Heartless, but there have lately been ships coming and going from it in huge numbers. It's as if they're planning something.

"So, Mickey thought we should go down there and try to figure out what was going on. He said he had been there once before, using a portal on a nearby planet called Anomelia that took him to a dormant volcano. The only problem was, the portal wasn't there. We spent almost a week scouring that planet, and then many more weeks wandering some other planets Morphos, looking for that portal. Mickey was completely baffled. We never found it, but we did run into Naminé."

"Tell me more about Naminé," said Kairi impatiently. "Sora said that that scientist had kidnapped her! Was she okay?"

"Okay?!" cried Riku incredulously. "She nearly killed me! But we decided to end our search for the portal right then. So we went to Sitadi, and Mickey told me to come back here and bring you, Donald, and Goofy to that planet. Said he had a growing feeling that it wasn't safe at this castle anymore."

"Well, he was right about that," said Sora. "There have been…"

A crack of thunder ripped the relative silence of the courtyard as a static electric charge shockwaved through the air and stung the five of them. All eyes turned to Donald, who had drawn his staff. "Heartless!" he spat. "There were three of them just over there, by those bushes!"

Three flashes of light briefly lit up the castle as Sora, Kairi, and Riku each summoned their respective keyblades. "Where?" cried Sora wildly. He followed Donald's pointing finger to a small hedge near the middle of the courtyard. A single, tiny Heartless sat in the middle of path, gazing at them curiously.

Sora didn't stop to consider the improbabilities of the situation as he sprinted toward his enemy, keyblade poised to strike a blow straight threw it. Why would a lone Heartless be just sitting there, without any others in sight? It was simply bizarre; no Heartless would do that unless they were under the influence of some greater power.

But it was a cause-and-effect instinct: see the Heartless, kill the Heartless. So as Sora bore down upon his adversary, it never crossed his mind that something might be hiding around the corner. And it wasn't until he had just impaled the Heartless that a prolonged scream from Kairi alerted him to the trap. But by then it was too late. As he glanced up from the dissipating remains of the Heartless, he saw a lethal gleam of light from the sharpened point of an enormous spear. It had been hurled by someone further down the path, and now it hurtled toward Sora at an incredible speed, merely inches from his unprotected chest.


End file.
